Tuesday, August 21, 2007

That perfect eye wall is a marvel to behold. Imagine sustained winds of 154 mph and gusts of 200mph. You can't.

WELL DEAN continued to be a worst case/best case scenario. First, the worst case. The hurricane came to shore as a strengthening Category 5. Now, the best case. The hurricane did hit a sparsely populated area. And it blew through fast. Here's the local's take:

"We began to feel the strong winds about 2 in the morning and you could hear that the trees were breaking and some tin roofs were coming off," said Miguel Colli, a 36-year-old store employee. "Everyone holed up in their houses. Thank God that the worst is over."

With the storm still screaming, there were no immediate reports of deaths, injuries or major damage, Quintana Roo Gov. Felix Gonzalez told Mexico's Televisa network, though officials had not been able to survey the area. In the Quintana Roo state capital, Chetumal, the storm downed trees and sent sheets of metal flying through the air.

At landfall, Dean had sustained winds near 165 mph and gusts that reached 200 mph — faster than the takeoff speed of many passenger jets. It was moving west-northwest near 20 mph across the Yucatan Peninsula.

Our lovely house guest just returned from a quick trip to the hotel zone to check on his house. Good news all around. There is some flooding, but there is always a little after the simplest rain. Their house was totally dry thank goodness, no harm done. A few trees and signs are down, but NO major damage seen at all. He has said that there is some flooding in Dreams Cancun as well. My husband just chatted with a friend who lives in Bonfil (a “suburb” of Cancun) and she said all is well, just the normal flooding from a little rain.

I couldn't find information about how those further south faired, but I'll post when I do. Dean will travel quickly and hit Mexico again. This has been a historic storm.